Django Unchained is one of the holiday’s most anticipated films. The film’s cast admits that the use of the N—word was one the biggest challenges presented during filming. In the wake of the tragedy in Newtown, CT, the discussion of influence from violence on the big screen has come up in Hollywood.

Django Unchained is centered on a slave who turns bounty hunter. Harsh language along with violence is a major element of the movie. The use of the N-word was something that the cast had to come to terms with. The N word is used a whopping 110 times in the film. Actress Kerry Washington told Access Hollywood, “These characters use the N word because that’s what people said back then, and again if you don’t understand how ugly the time is, you don’t understand how badass [Django] is to get through this time.”

Jamie Foxx who plays the title character Django expressed how the N word was needed to illustrated the vision of the film’s director Quentin Tarantino, “I think that what Quentin wanted to do was really let you know how it really was and you’re not supposed to feel good about it,”

Samuel L. Jackson explained that co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays slave-owner Calvin Candie, was having a difficult time using the word so often throughout the movie.

The question of violence in media, particularly film, has been raised in discussion throughout Hollywood since the massacre that happened in Newtown, CT. According to Movieline, Tarantino defended on-screen violence at a press event in New York, that he believes that there is no correlation between on-screen violence and real-life violence.

Some of the cast commented on violence in film as well. Jamie Foxx commented, “We cannot turn our back and say that violence in films or anything that we do doesn't have a sort of influence. It does."